TULANE TALK

August 24, 2007

Good Morning:

Tomorrow, we will welcome more than 1,325 first-year and nearly 200 new transfer students to Tulane University. This class represents a great triumph, a nearly 50 percent increase in new first-time freshmen over last year and a nearly 20 percent increase in new transfers over last year.

If this time last year you would have told me that I would be announcing these kinds of enrollment numbers, I would have not believed it. Now, I consider these figures the first of many victories to come.

The students of this year's incoming class were selected from more than 17,000 applicants. The achievement and character of these students is obvious the first time you meet them. With average SAT scores of 1940 and average ACT scores of 28, it's small wonder that 50 percent of our incoming class were in the top 10 percent of their high school class, with the vast majority of the remainder in the top 20 percent. More than 90 incoming students graduated from high school with perfect 4.0 GPAs.

Our freshman class includes students from 44 states. Louisiana is the most represented state, followed by New York and Texas. Students of 21 countries, from Albania to the United Kingdom, are also represented in this year's class.

This class includes students who have started their own businesses, a top 30 ranked U.S. chess player, a bagpiper, an accomplished ironworker and the No. 3 ranked female luge competitor in the country, who is currently training for the Junior Olympics. There are also three sets of twins, nine third-generation Tulanians, 37 second-generation Tulanians and 52 siblings of Tulanians.

Interestingly, the great-grandson of Randall Lee Gibson (the first president of the Board of Administrators of the Tulane Educational Fund and a U.S. Senator) is also a member of this class, as is the winner of the USA Today Public Service Award.

I could go on for pages listing all the sterling attributes of our amazing new undergraduate class. But, suffice it to say, they follow proudly in the footsteps of a long line of great Tulane students. Like those who came before them, this class represents the best of their generation and our greatest hope for the future. Please help me welcome them to their new home.